Spain excited for two gold medals by Figueroa and Bernabeu

British Alice Schlesinger took the victory U63kg at the Grand Slam in Baku. In the final she defeated the surprising Croatian Marijana Miskovic Hasanbegovic who won her previous four matches. Schlesinger overcame Yarden Gerbi (ISR) in the final for the third time in a row.

Gerbi also lost her bout for bronze against Cuban Maricet Espinosa. Another surprise was the bronze medal for Turkish Busra Katipoglu who didn't have to fight Bak YiJin due to an injury, and she defeated Megumi Tsugane in her repechage match. Schlesinger won her first Grand Slam for Great Britain and was the 4th ever to win for her country.

Sharipov decides all Uzbek final

Mirali Sharipov defeated his teammate Giyosjon Boboyev in the final U73kg by mix of a lift and uchimata whikle is was behind by wazari against Boboyev, but could make the change in the match halfway regular time. For the first time an All Uzbek final at a Grand Slam and Sharipov won his first Grand Slam ever and became the eight Uzbek to win it. Both semi finalist Miki Ungvari (HUN) and Dmytro Kanivets (UKR) lost their bronze fight against Yinjirigala Sai of China and Ungvari lost to Rustam Orujov, the home favourite. He was caught by surprise in the quarter final against Kanivets, but the Ukrainian couldn’t give him the metal credits of his efforts.

Maria Bernabeu spoils Spain with second victory

Maria Bernabeu became the second Spaniard ever to win a Grand Slam, even two this edition as Julia Figueroa won gold U48kg. Bernabeu spoiled the Spanish fans with a perfect sankaku technique in the final against Maria Portela of Brazil. Portela was the surprise as she needed some confidence on her way to the home Olympics in Rio. Bernabeu beat her a few times and was favourite for the final. After 100 seconds she started her ground technique and combined it by oseikomi to control Portela.

Again Maria Perez (PUR) and Elvismar Rodriguez (VEN) won a bronze medal at the world podium. Last week both captured bronze at the PanAm Championships in Havana and bronze in Samsun one month ago.  The same scenario for Elvismar Rodriguez who performed in the same way and gave her business card for an outsider role in Rio.

Takanori Nagase takes gold with convincing final

The final for men U81kg was won by World Champion Takanori Nagase who seemed vulnerable today in his semi final when he was behind by wazari against De Wit, but in the final the glancy Nagase was back when he outbalanced Ivaylo Ivanov after 40 seconds in the match with perfect ashi waza. His semi final opponent Frank de Wit put Ivan Silva Morales under pressure from the start in the bronze medal bout and scored a yuko but was countered not much later. When gutsy De Wit launched another trademark ko-soto, Morales countered him by ippon and lost against his rival for Olympic qualification. Now perhaps both can make it to the Olympic Games. Both know eachother so well, they fought the World Cadet Championships final in 2013 and De Wit blocked Silva at the Youth Olympics and beat him in Düsseldorf this year, but was countered this time.